@IndependentDEVoter" Mr.Adegible was not the Trial Attorney , he was the Appellate Attorney. The scenario you paint is impossible and dishonest. Appellate Courts do not re-litigate the case. Appellate Courts review and litigate appeals of issues of law. There is no jury to play to as you...

Supporters of Debo Adegbile, the son of a Nigerian father and an Irish mother, say his nomination had been fraught with race issues from the start. Opposition focused on his past legal representation of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a convicted cop killer in Philadelphia who became a cause celebre in leftist circles.

Adegbile’s involvement in the case brought condemnation from police unions and from the widow of the slain policeman.

Even so, until recently his nomination had been expected to pass, albeit narrowly. But on Wednesday, a procedural vote on the nomination was seen as so close that Vice President Joe Biden rushed to the Senate floor in case his vote was needed to break a tie.

In the end, seven Democrats voted against advancing the nomination. It marked the first time an Obama nominee was blocked since the Senate changed its rules last year to prevent filibusters for most presidential nominations.

Civil rights advocates who backed Adegbile expressed outrage, suggesting that race may have played a factor.

“You hate to raise that up, but it smells very bad," said Hilary Shelton of the NAACP.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid warned Republicans just before the vote that if Adegbile lost there would have to be a “broad discussion” of civil rights in America. At the last minute, Reid changed his vote to no, a procedural move that could allow him to call another vote in the future.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, (R-S.C.), who voted against Adegbile, said the vote was about Adegbile’s behavior, not his race. “When someone has a history of helping cop-killers, this is what happens,” Graham said in an interview.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden urged fellow Democrats to stop obsessing about the role that well-funded outside groups are expected to play in the midterm election, saying it will be enough for their party to lay out an affirmative case on the issues.

WASHINGTON — One of the nation’s largest law-enforcement organizations has voiced “vehement opposition" to the nomination of Debo Adegbile to become the Department of Justice’s top voting rights official, telling the White House and Congress that his work on behalf of...